In a manufacturing process for a semiconductor device or a liquid crystal device, etc., a substrate processing apparatus arranged to process substrates such as semiconductor wafers, glass substrates for liquid crystal display devices, etc., is used. A single substrate processing type substrate processing apparatus that processes substrates one at a time includes, for example, a spin chuck which rotates a substrate while holding it horizontally, a facing member which faces the substrate held by the spin chuck from above, a central axis nozzle which is housed at a central opening formed at a central portion of the facing member, a processing liquid piping which supplies a processing liquid to the central axis nozzle, and a suction device which suctions a processing liquid in an interior of the processing liquid piping. The facing member is a member which comes close to an upper surface of a substrate to shield the upper surface from a space in a periphery thereof. It is known that, after discharge of a processing liquid, the processing liquid is suctioned and a leading end surface of the processing liquid inside the central axis nozzle is allowed to recede.